Pillow Fight! Celebrate St. Louis' Third International Pillow Fight Day This Weekend

When it comes to running a successful mass pillow fight, the key is coming up with creative challenges.

"Otherwise," Mallory Nezam, founder and director of STL Improv Anywhere, tells Daily RFT, "it would just be a bunch of people knocking each other with pillows." Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Nezam says she already has several exciting ideas for this year's International Pillow Fight Day pillow fight -- on April 5 in Tower Grove Park -- but she's keeping her lips sealed. Past "challenges" have included a zombie pillow fight, a kids v. adults battle and ballet pillow fights.

"I don't know anyone else in the world who does a pillow fight like this," Nezam says. "We like to keep it playful, and we like to push people to do things weirder than they thought they would."

Tom Halaska, co-owner of the upcoming Craft Art Bar on Cherokee Street, is helping STL Improv Anywhere with this year's pillow fight. The former general manager of Sasha's on Shaw is putting together food and drinks, including treats for kids.

The all-ages, outdoor event comes with a list of no-no's -- no violence, no swinging at anyone with a camera, no glasses -- and a yes-yes list: costumes, decorated pillows and love.

Friendships form easily over the flying feathers, Nezam says. Last year, a woman at the pillow fight became so close to another woman she met there that she asked her to officiate her wedding.

"I think a lot of people haven't done something like this in a long time," Nezam says. "I don't think just kids need to play. I think all people need to play and let go."